Kelly D. Holstine

Holstine is a native of Fairmont, Minnesota, graduating from Fairmont Public Schools in 1992. Among other influential teachers, Holstine credits Paula Thiede, her fifth-grade teacher at Lincoln Elementary School, for making her feel like she mattered, that she was intelligent and loved, and inspired her personal teaching philosophy of "Every Heart Matters."[2]

After receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from the University of Massachusetts, she worked at print and television media outlets before turning to social work as a case manager for students who dropped out of high school. She received her Communication Arts & Literature teaching license in 2007 and her Master of Arts in Education in 2011, both from Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minnesota[3]

Holstine taught Communication Arts & Literature courses (English), advised Gender Sexuality Alliances, and facilitated Link Crew Programs at Chaska High School in Chaska, Minnesota, and St. Anthony Village High School in St. Anthony, Minnesota, before becoming a founding member of Tokata Learning Center. There she taught Communication Arts & Literature courses (English) to 9-12th graders, was a Curriculum Writer for the Success for the Future Grant, and was the advisor for the MAAP Stars student leadership program.[4][5] Tokata Learning Center is an alternative high school that serves grades 9–12 in Shakopee and surrounding areas.[6] In her Teacher of the Year application, Holstine wrote this about her students at Tokata: "It is true that our population can consist of students with varying abilities and temperaments, but these same students are also some of the most creative and brilliant humans with whom I have ever worked. And, without fail, the students who arrive angry, sad, hurt, and/or scared reveal their vulnerability, brilliance, and beautiful selves when they feel safe and valued." Soon after being named Minnesota Teacher of the Year, Holstine left the teaching profession in pursuit of other opportunities.[7]

Holstine began a Social Equity Advocacy Consultant business [8] in 2018. She consciously uses an Intersectional Equity lens in her work.[9]

On July 8, 2019 OutFront Minnesota announced Holstine had been hired as the LGBTQ+ civil rights group's Director of Educational Equity.[10] On June 26, 2020, Holstine resigned from OutFront MN.

Holstine became an Adjunct Education Professor at Augsburg University in September 2020.[11][12]

In the Fall of 2017 Holstine was nominated by Shakopee Public Schools professional learning coordinator Annie Rients and Tokata Learning Center principal Eric Serbus for Education Minnesota's Minnesota Teacher of the Year award, one of 167 candidates nominated across the state.[13] She was among 43 semifinalists and 12 finalists. She was named Minnesota Teacher of the Year on May 6, 2018. Holstine is the first out LGBTQ+ teacher to be named Minnesota Teacher of the Year and only the second Alternative Educator. She is the 54th recipient of the award and the first from the Shakopee district.[14]

In one of Holstine's responses posed by the Education Minnesota panel, she explained her teaching practice: I chose to be a teacher at a non-traditional age. Ten years later, my teaching practice still strongly matches this philosophy: teaching individuals to effectively solve problems, allowing students to learn by doing, giving students an active role in the learning process, and valuing the process of learning more than the outcome, respecting the whole of the child and creating a ‘community of learners’ – as opposed to a collection of discrete individuals.[15]

As the 2018 award winner, in 2019 Holstine was Minnesota's representative for the National Teacher of the Year program in Washington, D.C.[16] She chose not to attend to protest the policies of President Donald Trump, saying those policies frequently hurt her students who face discrimination.[17]

Holstine chose to kneel during the national anthem at the NCAA football championship game on January 13, 2020, as a way to "stand up for marginalized and oppressed people."[18] Holstine explained her reasons for kneeling in an article published in The Independent[19] and in her TED-Ed Talk.[20]